Theodore Roethke

The Saginaw Song

In Saginaw, in Saginaw,
  The wind blows up your feet,
When the ladies’ guild puts on a feed,
  There’s beans on every plate,
And if you eat more than you should,
  Destruction is complete.

Out Hemlock Way there is a stream
  That some have called Swan Creek;
The turtles have bloodsucker sores,
  And mossy filthy feet;
The bottoms of migrating ducks
  Come off it much less neat.

In Saginaw, in Saginaw,
  Bartenders think no ill;
But they’ve ways of indicating when
  You are not acting well:
They throw you through the front plate glass
  And then send you the bill.

The Morleys and the Burrows are
  The aristocracy;
A likely thing for they’re no worse
  Than the likes of you or me,—
A picture window’s one you can’t
  Raise up when you would pee.

In Shaginaw, in Shaginaw
  I went to Shunday Shule;
The only thing I ever learned
  Was called the Golden Rhule,—
But that’s enough for any man
  What’s not a proper fool.

I took the pledge cards on my bike;
  I helped out with the books;
The stingy members when they signed
  Made with their stingy looks,—
The largest contributions came
  From the town’s biggest crooks.

In Saginaw, in Saginaw,
  There’s never a household fart,
For if it did occur,
  It would blow the place apart,—
I met a woman who could break wind
  And she is my sweet-heart.

O, I’m the genius of the world,—
  Of that you can be sure,
But alas, alack, and me achin’ back,
  I’m often a drunken boor;
But when I die—and that won’t be soon—
  I’ll sing with dear Tom Moore,
  With that lovely man, Tom Moore.

Coda:

My father never used a stick,
  He slapped me with his hand;
He was a Prussian through and through
  And knew how to command;
I ran behind him every day
  He walked our greenhouse land.

I saw a figure in a cloud,
  A child upon her breast,
And it was O, my mother O,
  And she was half-undressed,
All women, O, are beautiful
  When they are half-undressed.